The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-09-10

ROOu many years DtlOI6 buSy ldlu Hill III bL6
grave. His iron frame had outlived his
mind. Paralytic and helpless, Betty and
her one maid-of-all-work waited on him like
child. He had fallen out of his place in
life; so when his helpless body finally dis
appeared nobody missed him much. Betty
had less work to do, and so had Maria; but
| otherwise her life flowed peacefully on.
| She only became a little thinner, her scant
| locks a little more sparse, and the rheu-
matism in her joints little more indis-
putable.
Now the second event had arrived. Betty
gasped and trembled. After all these years
of absolute peace and quiet, to have an
occurrence like this come to overturn all
established things! She wrung her hands,
and wept. Then she sent for her faithful
friend and henchman, Maria, and handed
her letter she had just received.
Read it, Maria, read itr'
Maria, who, like most New England serv-
ants, was as well born and as accomplished
as her mistress, took the document, and
| read:
Miss Elizabeth Perkins:
DEAR MADAM: Iwrite to tell you that your
! brother George died here at seven o'clock yes
! terday evening, leaving young daughter seven
| teen years of age. Miss Perkins is l fear,
almost without means. 1t was her fathers wish
| that she should go to you. She will leave here,
lucTGlOre, AlJ6F JH6 anu arrive III
| lea in two weeks time. The young lady is over
whelmed with grief. and write in her stead.
Most sincerely yours,
MARTHA ROBINSON.
PENSION ABERTI, Siena, Italy.
The letter was dated March Is. 1t was
now the LIST of April. May Perkins would
be here, then, in few days.
''If any thing had ever happened to me
BEFORE" sighed Miss Betty IF any thing
had ever happened before!" Then she
turned to Maria.
what shall we do, Maria, what shall we
do?n
Maria must have been some relation to
Mr.. Dick, for she Immediately replied
"Clean house"
This practical turn certainly gave great
relief to Miss Bettys mind. 1t was some
thing to do, and action would, better than
any thing else, relieve the tension of her
| nerves.
Within twenty-four hours the house was
overturned-that is, not the building itself,
but its contents. Curtains came down,
carpets sprang up, chairs located them
selves on tables, women armed with pals
appeared, men with whitewash brushes
followed. Miss Betty directed and Maria
acted as aide-de-camp. Confusion reigned
everywhere. From peace and order there
was relapse back into original chaos.
1t was when things were at their worst
that Miss Betty stood gazing out of an
upper window. Her glance fell on the mill
dam just above the house.
'How set father always was ~ she unused
to herself. How he always said there
wasn't any danger from that dam Every
body told him it would give way, and wash
us all out some day, but he wouldn't pay
any attention. It's lucky he isn't here
now" her mind passing to more important
matters. "What would he do with a
strange young girl in the house. He never
could get along, with young people, any
way" Miss Betty sighed. How should
she get along?
The household had not more than settled
back into its normal condition when, one
day, the village carry-all drove up, and out
of it stepped a blooming damsel of seven
teen. She was followed by a middle-aged
man, and by seven trunks. Miss Perkins
- 1T be penniless, but she haf ! wardl be.
"Ohl Aunt Betty, how do ysl do!n
1t was pleasant to feel that blooming
cheek pressed to hers, and to know that
this newcomer was her own kith and kin.
Miss May Perkins turned to the gentlo-
man at her side.
"Aunt Betty, this is Mr.. Mcintosh"
OOI IIlSS DSIOy I1dtl HOb enough nap
pened without this! In a moment she rec
ognized the lover of her youth. OF course
she did. What woman would not? But it
was hard to have him come in the way-to
come in the train of this blooming damsel,
with her bright youth 10 act as a contrast
to her aunt's faded features and tremslous
middle age
There is no use in discussing the matter
Women will cling to the romance of their
lives. Is there faded spinsler any where
who does not fondly recollect some hour
when the world seemed a glorious place
and the future full of bliss, simply because
some specimen of the other sex has looked
fondly into her eyes! If so, Miss Betty
was not the one.
am not going to betray the number of
hours that Miss Betty had spent dreaming
over the possible return of John Mcintosh.
He might come in this way, he might come
in that He might be old and gray and
feeble and infirm, in which case she would
see him just as he was in youth, and in old
age they would renew the romance of their
early days. He might come with wife
and family of children; in which case she
would be the particular friend of the woman
who had supplanted her, and the maiden
aunt to all the little folk. But she had not
| Planned 10 nave MN come IN the train of
her own niece, and that niece a handsome
young woman, with cheeks like peaches. a
foreign education, and gown copied from
those that English tourists procure in Paris.
o, no, no! Ten thousand times no!
But Miss Betty was a genuine New En-
gland woman in the control she exercised
over her own feelings. 1t was warm well
come she gave the travellers, and neither
of them noticed that her hands were cold,
and her voice trembled the least bit when
she drew them into the house and made
them welcome to all it contained.
o, how much there was to tell Aunt and
niece had to become acquainted. John
Mcintosh had to relate the history of his
sea-gong years. and the later ones, when,
after having secured competence, he de-
termined to explore the land as well as the
sea, and, attracted by the name of Perkins,
had made the acquaintance of May and her
father. When he learned that the latter
was from his own native town, and was in
deed the playmate of his childhood, moth
ing was wanting to open the way to a warm
intimacy But then had come the illness
and death OF George Perkins, and now John
Mcintosh had brought his friends daughter
home.
Was there, or was there not, a love affair
| hat, TOb I'm,